What is gestalt therapy in simple words?

The existence of gestalt therapy is not a very wide circle of people, although this direction from the field of psychotherapy arose in the 50s of the last century, and a decade later it began to spread quite quickly everywhere. Its name comes from the German word “gestalt”, which in Russian means “holistic image”.

Content

The concept of gestalt therapy speaks for itself. When working with the patient, a gestalt-therapist does not use hypnosis, as is usually done during psychoanalysis, when a psychologist tries to arouse his subconscious in the patient. In this case, the therapist becomes an active participant in the medical process of his patient, when interacting with him, a gestalt-therapist seeks to give a powerful impetus to the development of his self-awareness. This happens like a dialogue of two equal personalities, so such treatment is more humane than traditional psychotherapy.

Gestalt therapy: Concept

Gestalt therapy with gestaltpsichology should not be confused, but it should be noted that they still have similar elements.

The basis of the experimental-phenomenological approach (this is precisely the main concept of gestalt therapy) is the patient conducting all kinds of experiments that the therapist that tracks the occurrence of phenomena to carry out him.

This can be, for example, a client’s story about the case that once happened to him. About the case, which is very at the moment, the usual conversation on the abstract topic, etc.
Therapist can, for example, give a task to his ward spend And how to mentally visit one or another situation. And then they are together - both the doctor and the patient will consider in detail what measures he would take to solve one or another hypothetical task.
The medic can also apply the monodrama, which is also called "The method of empty stool". Its essence is what. The patient is offered to mentally imagine the picture that the chair is not empty at all, but is busy with an important person (or to himself), with whom he will conduct a dialogue - but no longer mentally, but voicing him.

The doctor has the right to intervene in the conducted experiment at any second-to send it in the right direction, to ask one or another question, to put the emphasis on something important for the patient. The experiment is not limited by the time frame, and at the very beginning, the client is advised to carefully look closely at himself and his sensations, while fixing the emergence of phenomena.

What is a phenomenon in gestalt therapy?

Phenomena can manifest itself as patient emotions, voice changes, facial failures, change of poses, gestures, in different time segments of his reactions, in the appearance of all kinds of sensations - stresses in the whole body, the appearance of heat, chills and the like.
Phenomena can only be considered those reactions that are observed in experimental times, even if events from the past of the patient are considered. Gestalt therapy is based on the fact that they only matter current, momentary thought forms and sensations, and not those that have been delighted in the past.
Phenomena fixation develops awareness in a person, and this is what they achieve through gestalt therapy. Treatment can become successful only if the patient acquires this skill and his ability to put it into practice at any time in real life. A gestalt therapy will help to teach all this.

What happens at the end of the experiment?

When the experiment is already behind, Gestalt therapist discusses his results with his patient. His dreams and their ratio to reality are considered. What other people expect from a person and coincide (or do not coincide) their desires.
The gestalt-therapist lists those phenomena that his client did not pay attention to-this is done so that during the next experiment he focused on themthat can improve and strengthen his developed awareness.
For reasons of humanity, the Gestalt therapist does not claim to be the “palm of the championship”, the principle of equality dominates here. In the dialogue, not a hint of mentoring and guardianship. A joint analysis of phenomena is carried out with complete trust in the patient's judgments.
At the same time, the gestalt-therapist must genuinely show his interest, entirely plunging into the topic under discussion. He is revealed to his counterpart as a person, presenting to his court the events from his past and his personal experience.
It is clear that the personal qualities of a gestalt-therapist They play a fundamental role in the process - much more than that, for example, psychoanalysis or behavioral therapy requires.
The establishment of trust and contact in gestalt therapy for dialogue is very important for the success of treatment.

The goal of gestalt therapy

Using gestalt therapy a holistic personal image is created and strengthened (gestalt) patient. Having mastered the skills of awareness, a person will be able to consider in himself the qualities that he wants to get rid of - from uncontrolled emotions, unnecessary (in his opinion) needs, certain character traits that annoy his thoughts, etc.
And then - do not get rid of all this cargo, but, on the contrary, accept in yourself everything that was previously rejected. Gestalt therapy helps a person Develop your own "I" In order for him to learn to fulfill his goals first of all, and not satisfy the needs of others.
In a word, work techniques in gestalt therapy They are aimed at ensuring that a person himself realizes that he is a personality, with all the lacks available in the history, and everyone around the people should be considered with his opinions and interests.

Features of gestalt therapy

The desire for completeness -The most important feature of gestalt therapy. Remember what dissatisfaction you happened to experience if the circumstances did not allow you to watch an interesting film.
And the injured athlete, with all, despite the fact that he perfectly understands, he can’t see victory anymore-the will manifests itself at least somehow defeat the finish line!

All people strive for some logical conclusion, and here our subconscious mind is triggered, and it is not so easy to realize this to an ordinary person (not a professional from the sphere of psychology). Many of us have a lot of such “incomplete gestalt”, which sometimes do not leave their heads throughout life, which negatively affects human behavior. The most susceptible to this melancholy.
A person can constantly torment some problematic, not permitted situation by this time, and this torments him for a very long time, sometimes from childhood. And the whole problem is in the incompleteness of Gestalt, but we do not realize this, and precisely because it is so difficult to get rid of it.
You can imagine this problem in the form of a splinter, due to which we experience unpleasant sensations, but the root cause is unclear to us.

Gestalt therapy teaches people to personally monitor the connection between such a mental “splinter” and experienced discomfort and save themselves from them. A person must live in the present tense, completely getting rid of the cargo of the past, and teach him this is the calling of a gestalt-therapist.

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